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Bobby Jindal

Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (10 June 1971-) was Governor of Louisiana (R) from 14 January 2008 to 11 January 2011, succeeding Kathleen Blanco and preceding John Bel Edwards. The son of Punjabi immigrants, Jindal was the first American governor of Indian descent.

Biography[]

Piyush Jindal was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on 10 June 1971 to a Punjabi immigrant family, and he graduated from Brown University at the age of 20 with honors in biology and public policy. Jindal joined the Republican Party while he was in college, leading the College Republicans club at Brown. He converted to Catholicism from Hinduism while he was at high school, and he worked as an aide to congressmen, as well as Governor Murphy Foster, after graduation. Jindal had vast medical knowledge and designed plans to reform Medicare, leading to President George W. Bush appointing him Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation in March 2001. From 2005 to 2008, he served two terms in the US House of Representatives as the representative from the 1st congressional district, and he ran for Governor in 2008, winning with 53.91% of the vote to become Louisiana's first elected non-white governor. He opposed the legalization of same-sex marriages, vetoed legislation to increase pay for state legislators, supported Common Core, and supported the right to bear arms. In 2016, he left office after two terms, and he intended to run for President of the United States. However, he dropped out after receiving low poll ratings, and he instead endorsed Marco Rubio as the Republican nominee.

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